49ers Candlestick seats on sale -- $649 a pair before they're blown up

Hey, 49ers fans: The team is offering you the chance to "own your piece of history" from Candlestick Park before it's blown up -- but it'll cost you at least $649.

The Niners said Tuesday that current season-ticket holders at the San Francisco stadium will be able to take their actual seats home with them next year.

Single seats are not on sale, but pairs are going for aprice of 600 and -- surprise -- 49 dollars. About 70 percent of the money will benefit San Francisco parks and the team will get the rest of the proceeds.

Starting Dec. 9, the general public can start buying whatever seats are left over -- for $749.

About 70,000 seats are available but most teams that have offered similar deals have sold about 15,000 seats at most.

"We've got people who are here for 30, 40 years, who have invested not only in the San Francisco 49ers but in the city, too," said Jim Mercurio, the 49ers vice president of stadium operations. "They've called Candlestick home just like we have and we want to make sure they have an opportunity to take a piece of it with them when it's time to go."

The 49ers are scheduled to play their last game at Candlestick on Dec. 23, though if its winning ways continue, the Niners have a chance at hosting playoff games in January. Next year, San Francisco officials expect to destroy Candlestick Park to make way for a new development while the Niners will move to their new $1.3 billion home in Santa Clara.

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Still, fans won't be able to watch the Niners on their big-screen TV while sitting in their old Candlestick seats in their living room until December 2014 -- after all the seats are removed, packaged and shipped.

Similar 42-year-old seats may go for the price of a cup of coffee at a yard sale, but the Niners are selling the seats from the Stick for the price of a brand-new iPhone 5s because of their sentimental value.

Fans have been sitting in these seats to see their beloved red-and-gold win NFC championships in 1990 and 1995, a Joe Montana-led 28-point second-half comeback against the New Orleans Saints in 1980 and, of course, "The Catch," which sent the team to the Super Bowl in 1982. San Francisco Giants fans may remember a few big moments at Candlestick, too, including the earthquake-interupted World Series game against the A's in 1989. The 'Stick has held quite a few special events, too, like the Beatles' final concert, in 1966.

Seats from old pro sports stadiums aren't cheap. Local media reported a $200 price for pairs of Houston Astrodome seats this year and $400 for a pair of New York Jets seats when the team closed down Meadowlands Stadium in 2009. Some seats at the old Yankee Stadium were on sale for as much as $1,999 a pair.

It's the second big-money seat sale for 49ers fans. The team for the first time began selling $2,000 to $80,000 "seat licenses" to fans for the right to buy season tickets in Santa Clara for $850 to $3,750 per year. Still, more than 90 percent of the seat licenses have been sold.

Earlier in the year, the team began asking fans to pay $195 to $545 to buy commemorative bricks, complete with a personal inscription, that will be installed outside the new stadium.

Mercurio said other commemorative items from the old stadium might be sold over the next few months but that they wanted to get the big-ticket item on the market in time for the holiday gift rush.

Staci Slaughter, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Giants, Candlestick's original inhabitants who shared the stadium with the 49ers for decades, said the team "has been in discussion" with city parks officials about "participation in some sort of way" to make seats available to Giants fans.